


Quiet Moments

by PipGirl



Category: Fallout 4
Genre: F/M, Fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-30
Updated: 2016-11-30
Packaged: 2018-09-03 06:26:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8700964
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PipGirl/pseuds/PipGirl
Summary: A brief glimpse of a quiet moment at Railroad HQ.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the Fallout Kink Meme, though it wound up going a different direction than intended.

“Bet you never met a synth before Glory.”

When the Railroad agent had said that to Nora on her first visit to HQ, she had nearly laughed in the young woman's face. She wouldn't have meant it to be derisive; she just found it terribly amusing. The agent clearly hadn't seen Nick with her, engrossed as he was in conversation near the doorway. She had choked back her laughter, though, and settled for a smile. “You might be surprised,” she'd told the girl, and Nick, with his impeccable timing, had chosen that moment to come up and slip his arm around her waist. Nora had turned to smile at him and he had kissed her lightly on the cheek, and that was how the Railroad had come to learn about their budding relationship.

It was a relief, really, and a delight, to have someplace where they could display their affections for one another without fear of reprisal or even rude comments. They found themselves spending more and more time in the underground hideout precisely because of the freedom of expression it gave them. Nora had always been a physically demonstrative person, and Nick, once he'd gotten over the initial shock of her professions of love and been convinced that she really, truly meant it, reveled in it. He was an old world gentleman of the highest order, offering her support when she needed it in the form of a gentle hand at her elbow or on the small of her back. She, in turn, fluttered kisses upon him at every opportunity or excuse. If he was near, she leaned into him. If she was beside him, he placed tender kisses in her hair. They were simple impulses of affection that they couldn't indulge just anywhere.

So it was that when Nora found that her armor needed more attention than just duct tape, she decided to take care of it at the Railroad's headquarters. She settled into one of the chairs, Nick seating himself beside her, and set to work on her armor. Conversation drifted around them, but for the most part she was totally engrossed in her work. She'd been neglecting this repair for awhile. When she needed an extra hand to hold the pieces together while she replaced a rivet with a Chicago screw-- a poor substitute, but the best she could do at the moment-- she turned slightly to Nick. “Would you?”

He pinched the pieces together with his bare metal hand. “Glad to see you finally taking care of this.”

She smiled ruefully. “It won't last long. I'll see to it properly in Diamond City.” She fitted the screw in place and twisted the two halves together, and Nick lifted his hand away. Without thinking, she kissed his fingers on the way by. He returned the gesture by brushing the backs of his metal knuckles softly against her cheek, and she beamed at him.

He glanced past her. “There's Deacon,” he said, gesturing with his head toward the door. “Gonna go have a word with him.”

She nodded and he left her to her work. As soon as he was gone, another one of the younger agents took his place. She didn't know this boy's name, or even his codename, but she still smiled a welcome at him and bent back to her task.

“That doesn't bother you?” 

She looked back up at him. “What?”

“I've been watching you. With Valentine. Saw you touching his hand. That doesn't bother you?”

Nora felt an unwelcome twist in the pit of her stomach. Of all the places she might be grilled about her attentions to Nick, she'd never have guessed Railroad HQ would be one. Her voice sounded cold even to her as she replied, “No, it doesn't bother me. Why would it?”

The guy shrugged. “I know your story. You're pre-war, straight out of a vault. Just seems unlikely that you'd come out into this world and be ready to let a synth touch you like that.”

She turned back to her armor, trying to absorb herself in the task and not let her anger get the better of her. “I'm not working some angle and using Nick, if that's what you're implying. I'm just not a bigot.”

To her surprise, the young man laughed. “Oh, god, I'm sorry. Yeah, that must have sounded bad. Look, I'm really rotten with people. And talking, apparently. I was just trying to tell you in my own stupid way that I think it's great, you and Valentine. We all do. We all know about his work in Diamond City and how rotten half that stupid town treats him anyway, and, well, I think it's really nice he found someone like you who doesn't care that he's a synth. You just treat him like a person, and that's all we want here in the Railroad, right?”

She felt her shoulders relax and gave him a smile. “Right.”

He leaned in closer. “I gotta admit...I was all on board with the idea that gen threes deserve our help, but when Glory and some of the others would talk about gen ones and twos the same way, I was skeptical. But seeing you and Valentine...well, it's given me a lot to think about. In a good way. I think I'm a better agent because of you two. So...thanks.” He got up without waiting for her to reply and walked away, and she detected a bit of a blush on his face as he did. 

She was still smiling to herself when Nick rejoined her, sitting next to her again and giving her a kiss on the temple. She leaned into the contact, as she always did, and hoped that someday it would be safe for them to be this comfortable anywhere in the Commonwealth.

If the Railroad had their way, someday it would be.


End file.
